Category: Blog

This is my last week of the year working (I guess I come back on the 30th for a minute), so I decided to do some analysis of my year. I like data and numbers, so I’m looking at a few aspects of life this year with data I’ve compiled from previous years.

Today I’m looking at my speaking efforts in 2024. Since I finished all my commitments in November, this is an easy post to write.

Speaking Stats

Here are the gross stats for public speaking, as free and paid events.

• Events: 37
• Talks: 68
• Virtual talks: 7
• free, community events (non UGs): 9
• user group talks: 3
• Redgate events: 20

This was also a year when I spoke at two events that repeated during the year. THAT! Conference was in Austin and Wisconsin Dells and I was honored to go to both. I was also at both of the Denver Dev Days (May and Oct).

Lots of these required some trips, but some were local or remote, so this didn’t feel like a big speaking year.

In terms of sessions, I delivered 19 different talks throughout the year, with a number of repeats. I like having 5-6 current talks that I can repeat at different events as this helps me practice them and deliver a smoother performance.

Most of my talks with smaller, < 100 audiences, but I did have a few keynotes this year with some audiences in couple of hundred attendees. Maybe my largest talk was to about 300 people + hundreds online at DevOps Days Minneapolis.

Many of these events were great, and I’m looking forward to more in 2025. A few that I’m hoping to get back to in 2025:

• VS Live (none in 2024 other than Live 360)
• THAT Conference
• DevOps Days (either Minn or elsewhere)
• SQL Sat Baton Rouge – one of my favorites and I hope to get back in 2025.

This is my last week of the year working (I guess I come back on the 30th for a minute), so I decided to do some analysis of my year. I like data and numbers, so I’m looking at a few aspects of life this year with data I’ve compiled from previous years.

Today we look at travels, which is something I do a lot each year.

The Report

Let’s look at my Power BI Report. Quite the year, traveling to three countries and spending nights in 35 cities. My home city/country are included, so the next is other places. As you can see from the map, I was lucky to get to Australia, the UK, and Italy.

One of my favorite spots this year was Montepulciano, where my wife and I spent a relaxing day.

A few other numbers (ignoring home):

• US States visited: 15
• Nights in hotels: 119
• Nights in hotels not for work: 36
• Trips: 26
• Flights: 68
• Overnight train trips: 1

The non work hotels are likely a bit low as my wife was with me and we extended some work trips by a day and relaxed. Otherwise, I’d have likely tried to miss a few hotel nights and get home.

I have no idea how many miles I traveled, but it was a lot. I had some long trips this year as well, which were made easier (for most of them) with my wife coming along. Australia was 19 days and the UK/Italy/UK was 14 days.

I also had some crazy stretches, which were hard, but fun trips. The first was this turnaround:

• Sun – Wed – London, UK for an event
• Thur – Cambridge
• Fri – fly to Colorado
• Sat/Sun – Colorado, coaching
• Mon – fly to Sydney, AUS

My body was a bit messed up after that one. The next one was a easier.

• Fri – leave Melbourne to fly home
• Sat-Sun home
• Mon – fly to NY

Another almost crossing half the world trip. The last one was also a bit crazy.

• Wed – Fly to Dallas
• Thur – event + Fly back to Colorado
• Fri – Fly to Syr
• Sat – speak, fly to New Jersey, then London overnight

That last one was OK since I spent 5 days in Cambridge and then a week in Tuscany with my wife. Glad I went home for a night though.

All in all, this was one of my biggest and not biggest travel years. I had the same number of trips as last year, but they were more spread out. No trips in Dec, and some nice stretches at home throughout the year. Last year was more hectic with lots of small trips that kept me leaving home almost every week for a lot of the year.

I also didn’t see as many countries this year, and no new ones, but we had some memorable and amazing vacations, which made a better year.

I also crossed 1 million flight miles on United this year, which is a nice milestone for someone that travels a lot. My wife gets to share my status, which is nice as she often travels solo and meets me in places.

Looking forward to 2025, though I have no idea what to expect for travel.